The present invention relates to a method for controlling an elevator installation operated with zoning in which changing between zones is made possible at an interchange floor and in which with at least one feeder-elevator group and at least one connecting-elevator group transportation to or from the interchange floor is realized. The at-least one feeder-elevator group comprises in each case several feeder elevators which travel to a first zone below an interchange floor and to the interchange floor. The at-least one connecting-elevator group comprises in each case several connecting elevators which travel to the interchange floor and to the floors of a second zone located above it. The trip destinations are input via a destination-call input. The feeder-elevator group and the connecting-elevator group are combined into a multigroup, which is controlled by a multigroup control. The present invention also relates to an elevator installation with several elevator groups having a destination-call control in buildings.
For the increasing requirement for transportation in tall buildings, intelligent elevator controls are used. For this purpose, the building is divided vertically into two or more zones or floor ranges. In each of these zones one or more elevator groups can realize transportation, especially of passengers. When there are many floors, vertical transportation often requires changing from a first elevator into another elevator. In this case, the first elevator used is a feeder elevator of a feeder-elevator group that transports the passengers to floors of a first zone and to an interchange floor. The interchange floor between the zones is also referred to as a sky lobby. Adjoining the interchange floor is the second zone. At the interchange floor passengers with trip destinations in the second zone change to a connecting elevator of a connecting-elevator group. A trip that requires changing from the feeder-elevator group to the connecting-elevator group is referred to as an interchange trip. By contrast, a trip whose destination is reachable without an interchange is referred to as a direct trip. However, as soon as a high amount of traffic to the higher range of floors with an interchange is necessary, queues may form on the interchange floor. These are caused mainly by unequal transportation capacities between the feeder-elevator group and the connecting-elevator group but also by uncontrolled direction of interchanging passengers in the feeder elevator.
In very high buildings, elevators occupy a significant part of the cross-section of the building. Since the available space on the interchange floors is usually limited, the space problem on the interchange floor cannot be solved without comparatively high constructional and financial outlay.
With conventional “two-button controls” there is usually no transportation-optimizing connection between the feeder-elevator group and the connecting-elevator group. Solutions are indeed known, for example to synchronize the arrival time of the feeder elevator and of the connecting elevator, but these have various disadvantages. Thus, the more realistic variant is delay of the feeder elevator because an earlier arrival time of the connecting elevator by dynamically changing the acceleration and/or speed or shortening the door-opening time is either technically impossible (electrical performance, traffic density, etc.) or contra-productive for traffic optimization (skipping stops).
Furthermore, the conventional control offers no means of early recognition of the need for an interchange trip, so that no effective measures for simplification of the interchange process are possible.
Described in the European patent EP 0 891 291 B1 is a control for several elevator groups in which several destination-call controls are combined into a multigroup control, the multigroup control selecting from all possible elevators of all elevator groups the lowest-cost elevator. This solution aims to allocate one elevator from several elevator groups, input of a destination-call being utilized to allocate the lowest-cost elevator for the desired trip in such a manner that the passenger is transported to his/her destination by the most direct route possible.
However, the disadvantage of the solutions with destination-call controls hitherto is that allocation of the interchanging passengers in the first feeder elevator used takes place irrespective of the final destinations of the individual passengers and the number of final destinations. For this reason it is possible for a feeder elevator to be transporting only passengers all of whose trip destinations are in a second zone but that each passenger wants to leave the elevator at a different floor in the second zone. This uncontrolled allocation requires elaborate and sometimes unclear signaling of the connecting elevators. Also with the solutions hitherto, it is not possible to direct the passengers to the feeder elevators in such manner that the passengers of a certain feeder elevator can change to the same connecting elevator which travels to only a limited number of trip destinations. With the methods of control known hitherto it is possible for passengers with mutually exclusive characteristics, for example opposite directions of travel of the connecting elevator, meaning distribution of the passengers from the interchange floor in upward and downward direction, to be allocated the same feeder elevator. The number of interchanging passengers with different trip destinations in the feeder elevator and in the connecting elevator could not hitherto be restricted to a reasonable number.